Randy Gervais
Founder and Owner, Checkerbox
Three years ago, a senior at Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie named Randy Gervais — whose family owns the audio/visual company Royal Productions — went looking for his own business idea. What he came up with was socks.
“I was looking for something everyone needs,” he says, “something that is relatively inexpensive to make but has a high profit margin. So I thought, ‘Why not socks?’”
Gervais focused specifically on men’s dress socks.
“I looked at what was out there and I saw a lot of stripes, polka dots and argyle, so I thought I’d do something different — a checkerbox print.”
In August 2015, Checkerbox was born. Just a few months into launching, Gervais sold $30,000 worth of socks in just two weeks.
“I told my mom and dad, ‘I think this thing is going to work!’” he says.
Now just 22 years old, Gervais runs a strictly online business that offers “socks that stay up all day” crafted from 100 percent combed cotton or a cashmere blend in more than 50 different patterns, as well as ties and pocket squares. Along with checkerbox prints in every color, he offers fun prints like coffee cups, camouflage and even pink flamingos.
One of his most in-demand socks, however, came about as a result of a request from Louisiana’s Lt. Gov., Billy Nungesser.
“He called me and asked if I could make a state sock that he could wear at the capitol, so I took the state seal and put it on a blue sock,” he says. “They sell out as fast as I release them.”
